After this I was moved to go into Derbyshire, where the mighty power of God was among Friends. And I went to CHESTERFIELD, where one Britland was priest. He saw beyond the common sort of priests, for he had been partly convinced, and had spoken much on behalf of Truth, before he was priest there; but when the priest of that town died, he got the parsonage, and choked himself with it. I was moved to speak to him and the people in the great love of God, that they might come off from all men’s teaching unto God’s teaching; and he was not able to gainsay. But they had me before the Mayor, and threatened to send me, with some others, to the House of Correction; and kept us in custody till it was late in the night. Then the officers, with the watchmen, put us out of the town, leaving us to shift as we could. So I bent my course toward Derby, having a friend or two with me. In our way we met with many professors; and at KIDSEY-PARK many were convinced. Then coming to DERBY, I lay at a doctor’s house, whose wife was convinced; and so were several more in the town. As I was walking in my chamber, the [steeple-house] bell rung, and it struck at my life at the very hearing of it; so I asked the woman of the house what the bell rung for? She said there was to be a great lecture there that day, and many of the officers of the army, and priests, and preachers were to be there, and a colonel, that was a preacher. Then was I moved of the Lord to go up to them; and when they had done I spoke to them what the Lord commanded me, and they were pretty quiet. But there came an officer and took me by the hand, and said I must go before the magistrates, and the other two that were with me. It was about the first hour after noon that we came before them. They asked me, Why we came thither; I said, God moved us so to do; and I told them, “God dwells not in temples made with hands.” I told them also, All their preaching, baptism, and sacrifices would never sanctify them; and bid them look unto Christ in them, and not unto men; for it is Christ that sanctifies. Then they ran into many words; but I told them they were not to dispute of God and Christ, but to obey him. The power of God thundered amongst them, and they flew like chaff before it. They put me in and out of the room often, hurrying me backward and forward; for they were from the first hour till the ninth at night in examining me. Sometimes they would tell me, in a deriding manner, that I was taken up in raptures. At last they asked me, Whether I was sanctified? I answered, Yes; for I was in the paradise of God. Then they asked me, If I had no sin? I answered, “Christ, my Saviour, has taken away my sin, and in him there is no sin.” They asked, How we knew that Christ did abide in us? I said, By his Spirit, that he has given us. They temptingly asked, If any of us were Christ? I answered, Nay, we were nothing, Christ is all. They said, If a man steal, is it no sin? I answered, All unrighteousness is sin.